Cruel World Side Stories
by WynterSky
Summary: Short oneshots and ficlets filling in around Cruel World Be Forgiving. Probably not in chronological order. New story 'Team 7' up now!
1. Beginning

[A/N: And side stories! Hope you like :-)]

Beginning:

Sasori cut through Fire Country on his way north, passing quite close to Konoha. Konoha's alliance with Suna was vague at best, so he didn't need to worry about them having heard yet about his defection.

He wasn't really bothered by having to leave his home; no one cared about him there, and he would return the favor. However, he had been forced to leave almost all of his puppets behind, which was a sore point. Still, it would be a simple enough matter to build up a new collection, especially if any Konoha nin happened to wander a little far on their patrols.

In hopes of this happening, he paused near a river a short distance away from the village and settled down to wait for a while. Not needing to sleep was still quite an odd feeling, but he could certainly get used to it. It would give him plenty more time to work on his art, after all.

Hearing movement a ways down the riverbank, Sasori quietly crept from tree to tree until he could see a bit better. By that time, however, the shinobi had already set his burden down in the reeds and headed back towards the village. Obviously he was expected back—Sasori couldn't afford to attack him only to be discovered almost right away.

He was about to set off north again when he heard the cries. Intrigued, he dropped from the tree and walked over to the riverbank to investigate.

While he didn't know all that much about babies, he did know that they needed other people to take care of them and if one was just left somewhere it certainly wouldn't last very long. Of course, Sasori didn't have much use for one—what could he possibly do with a baby puppet?—but he knelt to take a closer look anyway.

The baby had quieted down by now, and Sasori poked at it curiously. The baby's eyes opened, and Sasori jumped back in surprise at the sight of the brilliant red swirls.

Wondering how on earth a baby had ended up with the Mangekyou Sharingan, Sasori picked the baby up gingerly, trying not to get too much water and dirt from the blanket it was wrapped in on his clothes. Due to the process of converting himself into a puppet, he had enough resistance to the genjutsu's pull to examine the baby without fear. It quieted after a few more seconds of crying, apparently realizing that someone was holding it.

Every great artist needed a servant, Sasori mused. Of course, it would be quite a while before this little thing could be very useful, but he could wait.

It wasn't as if Sasori was going to be aging, after all.


	2. 2

[A/N: This one just sits a bit funny with me...Mikoto/Fugaku interaction isn't all that easy to write, especially in this situation. Ah well. It's kind of necessary.]

After what everyone else now knew as the stillbirth of Mikoto's first child, Fugaku buried himself more and more into his work, sometimes not even leaving police headquarters for days on end. He could hardly bring himself to face Mikoto, and hoped that busying himself with other things would help him forget what he had done. Of course it didn't, but he could usually distract himself enough not to think about it.

This couldn't go on indefinitely; after a few months fellow police officers began to comment on how tired he was looking. At first he brushed off these comments, but soon had to admit that he was not at his best after ruining what should have been a painfully simple pickpocketing sting.

A few days later, Kichirou visited him in his office and politely suggested that he consider taking a vacation. If it had been anyone else, Fugaku would have thrown them out, but Kichirou knew what was going on. Fugaku had to agree that it was a good idea; he had to be on his best form for the sake of the police force.

Mikoto seemed surprised when he came home and told her that he had applied for a leave of absence. Now that he wasn't so busy, he could tell that everything about the baby had hurt her even more than him; she tried to appear cheerful for him, which only served to make him feel even more guilty for leaving her alone all the time.

She had left the nursery decorated, a soft, cheerful room with blue walls and little animals scattered all about. Fugaku quickly learned that whenever he couldn't find her anywhere else she would almost always be sitting in there, staring sadly at the bassinet in the corner.

He found her in there one day and quietly sat down beside her. Ordinarily, he would have left her to herself, but he knew that was hardly the best way to go about things. Mikoto flung her arms around his neck as soon as she realized he was there, burying her face in his shirt and beginning to cry.

"Why did we have to lose him?" she gasped between sobs. "What did we do wrong?"

"Nothing," Fugaku whispered into her hair. "You didn't do anything wrong." It was my fault. All my fault. "Sometimes these things just...happen." What kind of hypocrite was he, comforting his wife for the death of their child when he was the one responsible?

Mikoto slowly stopped crying and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her kimono. "I'm sorry you had to see me like this," she said with a teary smile. "Don't worry, we'll get through this, you'll see."

Fugaku didn't say anything. What was there to say to that, anyway?


	3. Christmas in July

[A/N: This started out as present-tense, so I apologize if anything slipped by me when I decided to change it...I need to go back and add the chronology tags to the other stories.]

(Itachi is 4 ½ by the end)

Christmas in July:

It was a little more than four years after what Fugaku remembered as unquestionably the hardest decision of his life when he came home from police headquarters to find Mikoto waiting for him on the porch. She didn't do this often, so Fugaku was sure that she must have something to tell him, especially from the smile she was clearly trying with little success to smother.

"What is it?" he asked, quickly mounting the stairs and taking her small hands to pull her close.

"I've got a surprise for you," she said, and had to stand on tiptoes to whisper in his ear. "We're going to have another one."

It took Fugaku a few seconds to figure out what she was talking about. Once he did, he couldn't decide whether to feel happiness at another chance or fear that maybe what happened back then wasn't a fluke—he wouldn't be able to stand making that decision again.

Mikoto was looking at him oddly by this point, so he smiled and kissed her quickly. "That's wonderful, darling," he said, trying to ignore the cold knot of worry in his chest.

Mikoto beamed. "Isn't it? I can't wait to find out whether it's a girl or a boy. And I'll have to call Atsuko-nee-chan and have her help me prepare the nursery—" her voice shook a little on the word 'nursery' but she went on as if nothing was out of the ordinary. "Shisui will be so excited to have a little cousin!"

...

Over the next couple of months, Mikoto only became more excited. Fugaku knew that she had to be at least a little worried, though, because he had seen her having long, serious conversations with some of her sisters. These often ended in tears, and Fugaku pretended he didn't notice how red her eyes were when she came back to the house.

He accompanied her the day she went to the hospital to find out the gender of the new baby, but was forced to cool his heels in the waiting room while trying not to panic. When a few other couples passed with their infants, he tried to hide how jealous he was, at least until they were out of sight.

It seemed to be weeks before Mikoto returned, and Fugaku knew from her radiant smile that she had good news. Of course, everything had seemed ordinary before, but that didn't mean anything, did it?

"Well," she said cheerfully, coming over to him while buttoning up her coat, "Don't you want to know?"

Fugaku had a vague notion that he might actually want to be surprised, but Mikoto would probably burst if she couldn't tell, not to mention the fact that it would be near-impossible for her to actually keep it a secret. "...you want to tell me," he replied, pulling her down next to him and putting an arm around her waist (the receptionist wasn't looking in their direction).

"It's a boy," Mikoto announced. "Another boy..." she sighed, her expression turning wistful.

Fugaku ran a hand through her hair gently; he could think of nothing to say that would ease the loss. "Let's get home," he suggested after a minute, and Mikoto agreed.

...

The months began to blur together a bit after that, with doctor visits and home renovations added to his already busy schedule at police headquarters. While he was unofficially off duty now, he had to be around to keep everyone else in line and make sure things ran smoothly.

Therefore, he was a bit confused when he returned to the house and found that Mikoto wasn't there. He had actually gotten back early for once, and he was trying to remember whether she was going to get together with one of her girlfriends or go to the hospital for another checkup or something else that he'd forgotten when Shisui scampered up the walk and onto the porch after him.

"Fugaku-ji-san!" he shouted, almost undecipherable with how fast he was talking. "Kaa-san sent me to find you and she said to tell you to go to the hospital and Mikoto-ba-san's having the baby!"

As he was thinking a bit slowly in the sweltering summer heat, Fugaku took a few seconds to sort through everything the boy had said. He sprinted for the gate as soon as he registered the last phrase.

...

Fugaku was forced to wait for four frantic hours before being permitted to see his wife and second child, and spent every moment panicking over what he would do if it hadn't been a fluke the first time. He couldn't possibly get rid of another child, he couldn't, and even if he was willing to do that, it would be nearly impossible to cover up this time. He knew he didn't deserve anything after what he had done, but Mikoto shouldn't have to be put through this again.

Because of what had supposedly happened the first time, Mikoto had decided to go to the better equipped Konoha hospital instead of the Uchiha clan clinic. This meant that a live birth would immediately go into the city records, rather than the more easily accessible and falsified clan records.

Finally, after Fugaku had been waiting so long that he was almost certain something must have gone wrong, a nurse opened the door and beckoned him in. She didn't look as if she was under a genjutsu, so Fugaku almost began to dare to hope.

"Is everything all right?" he whispered.

"Oh, yes," Mikoto said breathlessly from inside the room. "Everything's wonderful, darling, come and see!"

Much encouraged, but still aware that they weren't out of danger yet, Fugaku brushed past the nurse and hurried to his wife's side, unable to take his eyes off the tiny little bundle that she held.

"I think he might be asleep," Mikoto whispered as Fugaku sat down in the chair next to the bed. "Here, do you want to hold him?"

Fugaku started to say that he very much did not—it brought back horrible memories of the last circumstances in which he had held a baby—but didn't have enough time before he found himself with his second child in his arms.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Mikoto asked.

The baby wasn't exactly beautiful (no newborn child was) but Fugaku quite agreed with the sentiment. "What are we going to call him?" he asked. He had been so worried over other things that he had never gotten around to discussing that with his wife.

"I was thinking that we could name him Sasuke," Mikoto said. "What do you think of that?"

Fugaku gently brushed his thumb across his son's tiny, soft cheek, then stiffened in apprehension as the baby yawned and opened a pair of beautiful deep dark eyes. "That's perfect," Fugaku said, handing the baby back to Mikoto. "Welcome to the family, Sasuke."

[A/N: I'm sure you all will be glad to know that I know have a full outline for the sequel that I'm moderately happy with, and that there will be another story after that, plus whatever sidestories I keep thinking up.]


	4. Cold Season

[A/N: Itachi is about 6 or 7 in this one.]

Cold Season

The mountain cave that Sasori used as a headquarters when not meeting with the Akatsuki was as disturbing as ever, Orochimaru noted as he stepped out of the tunnel into the main cavern. His shorter partner had made the entrance tunnel uncomfortably small, but then Sasori never thought about anyone else's comfort. Still, it was a considerable improvement from outside, as it wasn't snowing in there. Orochimaru hated winter in the north; forsaking the more temperate climate was one of the few regrets he had on leaving Konoha.

"What are you doing here?" Sasori demanded, setting down a small screwdriver and something Orochimaru preferred to leave unidentified as he pushed his chair back from one of the workbenches and stood up. "Does Leader-sama have a mission for us?"

"Nothing like that," Orochimaru replied, looking around for a chair that was both moderately comfortable-looking and not bloodstained. "I just wanted somewhere to read this where it wasn't snowing," he said, gesturing with the scroll he held, "and you were the closest acquaintance I could think of."

Sasori frowned. "More of your quest for 'immortality', I assume," he said in a disapproving tone.

"For the last time, Sasori, I am not turning myself into a puppet."

"But you'd make such a_ nice_—"

"No." Orochimaru wanted a physical body to experience his immortality with, thank you very much.

Sasori sighed, sitting back down at the workbench and picking up the screwdriver again. He hadn't been working very long before he was distracted by smothered coughing from a shadowed corner. "Be _quiet,_ can't you, stupid creature!" Sasori snapped, glaring in that direction. "Make me ruin this and I'll try it on you next," he muttered as he again started working on whatever his latest project was.

Orochimaru frowned, setting the scroll aside and walking over to get a better look at who else was in the room with them. "What's this?" he asked, looking down at the small, dark-haired child kneeling next to the table.

Sasori shrugged. "Nothing much. I found it a while back." This was not very informative; Sasori had been very vague with time ever since joining Akatsuki, probably because he no longer aged, and 'a while back' could be anything from a few days to several years. "Oh, here, look," Sasori added, reaching down to lift the child's chin up so Orochimaru could see his eyes.

Very few things surprised Orochimaru anymore, but he certainly hadn't expected what he saw now. "The Mangekyou—how did you ever get him away from the clan?" The Uchiha were notoriously protective of their bloodline, and he had heard rumours that they would rather kill one of their own than risk having the Sharingan fall into the wrong hands.

"I didn't, they got rid of it," Sasori replied calmly. "It's not really much use, but it's not big enough yet to make into a puppet, either."

The child did not react at all to this statement as Sasori let go of him, even though Orochimaru was certain he had understood what was said. His curiosity slightly satisfied, Orochimaru went back to the chair he had been sitting in, although he kept being distracted from his reading by the child's occasional smothered coughs and sniffles.

Orochimaru was not the only one distracted, as Sasori continued glaring in the general direction of the corner whenever the child made a noise. Finally, the puppeteer set his tools down in frustration. Shoving his chair back, he stood and grabbed the child ungently by the arm, and Orochimaru watched in mild interest as Sasori dragged the boy out of the main cave—disregarding the child's difficulty in keeping up with his longer strides—and into the tunnel.

It was a few minutes before Sasori returned and set back to work on his project with a sigh of relief. "Finally I can get some work done in peace," he muttered to himself. "Wretched brat, it would have to get sick when I'm working on something important."

Orochimaru frowned a little at that. Contrary to popular opinion, he did understand something of children's needs, and he felt fairly sure that Sasori did as well. Tossing a sick child out in the snow was hardly any method of keeping it in good condition.

He waited several minutes to see if Sasori would permit the child to return inside, but Sasori seemed to have forgotten about it entirely and was now engrossed in his project. Of course the child was Sasori's possession, but the puppet master's flagrant carelessness with something so valuable rankled Orochimaru.

After another few minutes, he set the scroll aside and headed for the tunnel himself. Sasori didn't even seem to notice his departure.

Orochimaru paused at the end of the tunnel, a bit annoyed that he had to go out in the snow again for such a pathetic little thing. The child had curled up in the lee of a large rock, which kept him from the worst of the snow but must have done nothing for the cold. His eyes were closed tightly and he was shivering, his skin almost pale enough to match the snow.

If it weren't for the thought of the Mangekyou Sharingan, Orochimaru would have gone back inside.

As Orochimaru approached, the child huddled a little closer to the rock, but did not raise his eyes past the level of Orochimaru's boots. Sasori had trained his chattel well. Orochimaru received further proof of this when he knelt down and reached down to touch the child, who immediately shrank away from his hand.

Orochimaru smiled to himself. While Sasori's methods had obviously gotten him efficient results with little effort, there was a reason Orochimaru's people followed him out of loyalty. A little kindness could go a long way, especially where there had been none before...

Unclasping his cloak, Orochimaru wrapped it around the child—ignoring his startled gasp—and picked him up, frowning a little at how light he was even wrapped in the heavy wool fabric. Even with the Mangekyou Sharingan, this child would be little good unless he was in better condition by the time Orochimaru had a use for him.

"What _are_ you doing?" Sasori demanded as Orochimaru re-entered the cave.

"Protecting your investment," Orochimaru replied, not bothering to mention that he was also making a little investment of his own. "Children can die of cold, you know," he added, sitting down with the child and beginning to rub his hands carefully.

"Can they now," Sasori said. He sounded disinterested, but Orochimaru was fairly sure that now that this had been made clear he would be more careful. "Well, do what you like. It's your own time you're wasting."

"Oh, but it's not a waste at all," Orochimaru said, but quietly enough that Sasori didn't hear.

It was a little hard to judge what the child was thinking, since he made every effort to keep Orochimaru from seeing his eyes. However, by the time he left Sasori's workshop, he had a feeling that the boy practically worshipped the ground he walked on.

And that suited Orochimaru perfectly.

[A/N: Please let me know what you think, especially of the POV because I found it really hard in this story. Also, remember this one because it will be significant later.]


	5. Team 7

Team 7:

"Shouldn't you be heading over to the Academy?" Rin pointed out with a significant glance at the clock on her office wall. "Your graduates will have been waiting for more than two hours now."

Kakashi shrugged. "Let them wait," he said, sitting down heavily in Rin's swivel chair and pushing off from her desk to spin. "It's not like I wanted a team, not now anyway...I don't know how Obito talked me into this..."

"I do, I was there," Rin remarked as she tidied up some papers. "You really can't say no to him, can you? Here, get going!" she ordered, grabbing the back of the chair and dumping the now-dizzy Kakashi onto the floor. "What would the Hokage say if he learned you didn't even show up on the first day of genin training?"

Kakashi could guess, and decided it wasn't worth it. Getting to his feet, he waved to Rin before leaping from the open window.

…...

"And here you are. _Finally_," Iruka said coldly as Kakashi walked nonchalantly into his office.

Kakashi pretended not to notice. "Have all the kids gone home yet?" he asked hopefully.

"Luckily for you, no," Iruka replied, handing Kakashi a file folder. "Here's the information on your prospective team. They're waiting for you in the main auditorium. It shouldn't take you more than two minutes to get there," he informed Kakashi pointedly before ushering him back into the hall.

Kakashi walked down the hallway to the auditorium as slowly as he could, opening the folder and reading the contents as he walked. "Uzumaki Naruto...now that's clever, I have to admit. The Third knows I'd have a hard time rejecting a team with my own sensei's son on it."

The next member of Kakashi's assigned team, a girl named Haruno Sakura, was not someone Kakashi recognized, but she looked diligent enough for a girl her age.

Flipping over the page, Kakashi stopped walking when he saw the picture of his last student. "Oh, I _would_ end up with Uchiha Fugaku's spoiled brat of an heir."

Kakashi made little secret of the fact that, apart from and because of Obito, he had no liking for any member of the Uchiha clan, especially its head. Despite this, he had known that because of his Sharingan he was likely to end up with an Uchiha child on his team—he just hadn't expected Sasuke.

He almost turned around and returned to the office to tell Iruka he was rejecting the position whatever the Hokage said, but...Naruto. The young jinchuuriki was already rejected by most of the village, and Kakashi might be the only one who would even attempt to teach him seriously. If another teacher was given the task, they might fail Naruto out of hand and end his ninja career before it could even begin.

Kakashi sighed. "Looks like I'm stuck. Might as well go see how bad it is."

Closing the folder, Kakashi meandered down the hall until he reached the doors to the auditorium. Masking his chakra in case one of the kids was clever enough to be looking out for him, he peeked through one of the frosted windows looking into the large room.

He caught sight of Naruto first, of course: the bright orange jacket and pants were impossible to miss, and with how much the boy was bouncing around the room it was honestly a bit hard to look away from him.

Sasuke was sitting in the front row, ignoring Naruto's attempts to engage him in conversation and pressing buttons on a handheld game controller with deep concentration.

Sakura was sitting primly in a seat a few rows back that coincidentally gave her a perfect view of every movement Sasuke made.

Kakashi decided he had seen enough and pushed the door of the auditorium open. Sensing movement above his head, he ducked his head to avoid the falling eraser and with a quick movement of one hand sent it hurtling across the room to leave a chalky print on Naruto's jacket.

"Wow, that was _awesome_!" Naruto cheered as he tried to brush the chalk dust off but only succeeded in making the white smear larger. "Are you our Sensei?"

_Shouldn't have shown off so much,_ Kakashi grumbled to himself as he realized the other two children were staring at him with interest as well. _Now they'll_ expect _things_.

"Why would he be here if he wasn't?" Sasuke pointed out before turning his attention back to his game.

"Um, hello, Sensei," Sakura greeted him with a nervous smile. "You...are our sensei, right?"

"Yeah, I am," Kakashi sighed, "not that the prospect is giving me much pleasure at the moment. Meet me on the roof in three minutes and we can get started." With that, he used a shunshin to arrive at the determined location before the three brand-new genin. _Maybe I can read a few pages before they turn up._

…

"Right, so let's start by introducing ourselves," Kakashi suggested when they had all gathered, looking vaguely past Sasuke's shoulder to judge the position of the sun. If he hurried, he might be able to make it to Obito's in time to pester him out of some lunch. "Likes, dislikes, hobbies, plans for the future and all that...anyone want to start?"

Three pairs of eyes stared at him pointedly.

"Fine, I'll start. I like dogs: everything else is classified."

"He hates tempura," Sasuke said. "And sweets."

Kakashi was suddenly very glad for the mask he was wearing. "Who told you that?" he demanded, pouncing down from the railing he was perched on in order to loom over Sasuke.

"Obito's aunt," Sasuke replied, not looking nearly intimidated enough for Kakashi's standards. "She also said you like those trashy—"

"Right, you shut up," Kakashi cut him off before he could finish the sentence. "Sakura, why don't you start?" he suggested as he returned to his previous seat.

"Well, that is, um, I like," Sakura babbled, looking anywhere but where Sasuke was sitting, then blushed bright pink and put her hands over her face. "My hobby is birdwatching!" she squeaked finally.

_What, seriously?_

"What, seriously?" Naruto asked.

Sakura nodded, still with her hands over her face.

"Naruto next," Kakashi said as he processed the information he had just learned.

"Okay!" Naruto beamed at being the center of attention. "I like ramen! I dislike having to take my couch apart when I forget where I put the last cup of shrimp ramen! My hobby is building furniture out of ramen cups and I want to become Hokage!"

Kakashi felt like asking a few questions here (and possibly trying to get some instruction because that sounded both economical and space-saving) but decided it would be a bad idea to play favorites. "And finally Sasuke."

"No."

Kakashi loomed again and pushed out a wisp of killing intent for good measure. "Sasuke…" Besides being a spoiled brat, apparently growing up in Fugaku's house had made Sasuke unreasonably hard to intimidate.

"Fine," Sasuke grumbled. "I like tomatoes, and I dislike people who don't shut up about their stupid ramen furniture." Naruto pouted and Sasuke ignored him. "My hobby is gaming, and in the future I will be the head of the Uchiha clan. But my dream is to top Shisui's high score in _Shinobi Showdown IV_."

Kakashi resisted the urge to just jump off the roof immediately and spare himself the disaster he could already picture happening. _I'm going to have an interesting next few years…_

[A/N: I was originally going to have Sakura say her hobby was tarot, but then I realized I would have to research tarot if she ever did anything prominent in Cruel World and that sounded like a lot of work...I'm still considering changing it back though.]


End file.
